Archaeologists and geneticists were finding evidence that multiple waves of people, from different source populations in Asia, had made their way to the New World at different times and by different routes.

The Columbia River — the very river where Kennewick Man was found — was at the center of one of the most debated of these routes.

Some researchers argued that the early coastline of the Pacific, rich in marine resources, had served as a highway for ancient peoples moving southward along the coast, potentially much earlier than any inland routes through the ice would have allowed.

Into this already-turbulent scientific environment came Kennewick Man’s bones.

And James Chatters’s words about the skull.

And everything fell apart.

SECTION 5: THE SCIENTIFIC INVESTIGATION — AND THE STONE THAT STARTED A WAR

Before the legal battle began — and it was coming, faster than anyone realized — there was a brief period in which science tried to do its work.

James Chatters examined the remains thoroughly.

He documented every bone, measured every angle of the skull, catalogued every sign of trauma and disease and lived experience that the skeleton contained.